On the day of Sept 11th, started out as a beautiful fall day, little crisp early morning, clear sky so blue. I remember thinking too nice to be in the office this day.

I worked for AIG on Water Street, so walk from subway to my office, always had me come out with the Trade Centers right in front of me as I walked to the top of the stairs. I did that as usual this morning, turned as I came up and headed down to Water St.

In office by 730AM, so we are working away when the first plane hit. We all looked up thinking a truck must have hit the building's garage ceiling or something. We went back to work until someone from our team came over and said they heard a small plane had hit the Trade Center. We all went to back window of our office and could see both towers from there and could see the smoke and damage to building. Not realizing how big the actual plane was we watched for a few minutes and then some of us, went back to our desks, me to call my wife to tell her what had happened (my wife had worked in the Trade Centers 20 years earlier). While calling the wife, I hear the folks still at the window yelling. I look over, and I clearly remember a coworker, staggering from the window in shock yelling "another plane just hit the other tower". I didn't see it myself, but the horror in her face told it all. I remember going back to window and this is when I remember that eerie sight of paper floating in the air like confetti. Thousands of pages that a moment earlier were sitting on someone desk.

Our management soon gave direction for all to evacuate our building, as we were in what we all thought was a prime target lower Manhattan. So all evacuated out to the street, but we all soon realized like the tens of thousands of other people in the area that subways, cabs, and any other form of transportation were not running. Most of my co-workers choose to go up town on foot, hoping to get home once there either by train, subway or bus. Myself I choose to go over the Brooklyn Bridge, to my sister's house, with hope I can get a ride back to my home in NJ. It was a solemn walk as we started over the bridge, the smoke of the towers high above us in the air. No one speaking, but we all started helping those who needed it, whether someone who couldn't walk on their own, or some who needed a shoulder to sob on as they walked.

Soon after we got on the bridge, the persons I was with needed to take a break. As we stood there letting some catch their breath, I turned to look at the towers through opening between a few of the smaller buildings. I remember staring at the smoke as it was going by the towers. Then I lost sight of them. I thought for a second the wind had shifted, but it quickly dawned on me that the tower was GONE! I turned to the people with me and said the tower was gone. At first, they couldn't understand what I meant, but soon you could see on their faces that they understood.

In silence we all started to walk towards Brooklyn again. Soon, we began to see the ash from the dust cloud falling out of the sky like snowflakes. Nothing like what you see where the cloud enveloped people closer to the buildings or on the streets. Instead, a slow haunting "snowfall" that I soon realized was all that was left of the towers and so many people that were in them. Thankful that helping others distracted us from the horror around us this helped many of us get across the bridge to Brooklyn.

After many hours I finally reached home to my family. That night was a blur, but I know that we were thankful, and a lot hugs and tears.

Over the next several days we spent checking on family and friends to make sure that all were ok. I can say that all immediate family and friends were physically ok. Some still bear emotional scars of what they saw that day as they were closer to the towers and saw some of the horrors firsthand. As time went by, I did find out about former coworkers who were lost that day. Good people who the world surely missed.

The other part of that week I wanted to share was towards end of that week. As the story of the horror unfolded on our TVs, we continued to see the coming together of people. People and companies coming together and do what ever they could to help out. One of the biggest things that was happening is a makeshift collection of supplies and food for the people that had started working down at ground zero. Makeshift "donation centers" started popping up and one of them was in Jersey City, right across from Ground Zero. I assume this popped up because that is where they would ferry volunteers who were working at Ground Zero.

Like many others who felt helpless I went over to this JC site. Not knowing what they needed of me I just went hoping there was some way I could help. So parked my car and just wandered over to where I thought this was happening. Like me I see others who have the same idea and then we come upon a mass of people, cars, some tractor trailers, etc.. Me and the other newbies are just swept up in the effort, first with no direction, then we are soon following the impromptu supervisors giving orders to take things off trucks, moving them over to that pile, moving ice, water, gloves etc.. While we do this the cars and trucks keep coming. hundreds who show up, with everything, whether a tray of food for the volunteers, 5 pair of work boots, cases of water, etc.

Somehow as this is going on, I end up at the dock. A boat just over from the NY side lets off the volunteers working on the NY side. We all applaud them as they make, their way home to get some rest. We start loading up the boat with supplies, ice, food and construction gear, all needed desperately. We soon finish loading and are then asked to stay on so we could unload on the other side. We are soon on our way to what is known as Financial District on the NY side. It is the early afternoon, but the buildings still look dark, no lights in any buildings, the fire from the pile in the background and hole in sky where the towers stood just several days earlier. As we got closer it felt like a mountain had been removed from landscape I have known most of my life.

The boat soon pulls up to the pier, where we are instructed to take the ice, water, food, construction supplies off pile right off the boat. We are then told to wait on boat as it will be a few minutes, being held for security reasons. Little did we know that President Bush, was coming in and will soon be speaking to the volunteers at the site.

We sit on the boat, soon 30 minutes go by, and I notice that the piles of supplies we brought over, plus many other piles were, were being moved. But the folks moving them are fireman and policeman. I look at others on the boat and say not right, we are sitting here doing nothing and these folks when not looking for their friends and coworkers have to do this. So, we get off the boat and join the line and start moving the piles. Then like on the Jersey side, we start moving from task to task on the NY side. All of this to stock up what looked like a marketplace for the volunteers. A place where anyone working the "pile" could come and get new boots, eye drops, working gloves, flashlights etc.. Where they could go get a hot meal away from the pile and try get some rest and go right back at it.

For the next few hours we work the marketplace, dish out food, deliver water to some of the volunteers, deliver some construction gear all as night start to come and we start to see the glow of the pile. That glow showing the bent girders of the tower, who at the base you see dozens of exhausted firemen, sitting on the pile, the agony on their faces.

Long after the president left that day, finally got on one of the boats heading back to NJ. I look back at NY and like the afternoon I see a hole in the sky. I also now see the glow coming from just beyond the Financial District buildings. The glow of lights so that so many who just didn't quit in looking first for survivors and then sadly for remains could work by this night and so many more nights in the coming months.

Finally, I want to say the one thing I miss from the time. I miss how the people of this country came together. If I could capture it in a bottle and give it to all, would love to recapture that so we could work through all that is bad for all our people.